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DIRECTIVE No

DIRECTIVE No. 125/1999/CT-BNN/KH OF SEPTEMBER 4, 1999 ON ELABORATING THE PLAN FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE YEAR 2000

In 1999, in spite of the confrontation with complex developments of the climate and weather and the impact of the monetary and financial crisis, thanks to the leadership of the Party and the State, the comprehensive and close guidance of the Government and the administration at various levels and the great efforts deployed by the people, agricultural production maintained its growth rate, national food security is assured and the volume of export recorded a quick growth. However, 1999 also revealed weaknesses in the economic structure, in the infrastructure and in the service industry as well as in the State management system of the branch which require a timely readjustment.

In the year 2000, the agricultural and rural development service must strive to continue maintaining the growth rate of agriculture at 3.5-4% with a view to reaching the targets of the five-year plan 1996-2000, achieving good results to mark the last year of the millenium and practically celebrating the major anniversaries of the nation, contributing to ending the decrease of the growth rate of the economy and at the same time creating new upturns as basis for the development of agriculture in the direction of rapidly raising productivity, quality and competitiveness, promoting the comprehensive socio-economic development of the countryside in the following years.

To that end, in execution of Directive No. 17/1999/CT-TTg of June 30, 1999 of the Prime Minister on elaborating the plan for socio-economic development and the draft State budget plan for the year 2000, the Ministry urges the Agriculture and Rural Development Services and the attached units to focus on drafting the plan for development of the branch and their units in the year 2000. In the process of elaborating the plan, the following requirements should be given due attention:

1. On agriculture:

- The foremost task of agriculture is to continue developing production, firmly ensure national and regional food security, promote intensive cultivation of rice on the basis of the development of water conservancy and the use of high productivity and high quality strains suited to the needs of the market, increase the acreage under hybrid maize and other food crops.

- The expansion of industrial plants, fruit trees, vegetables, beans... must be based first of all on the needs of the market and the advantages in land and climate of each region. To guide the farmers in expanding the growing of marketable and competitive crops, especially export plants of high economic value and the formation of concentrated production areas linked to the processing industry. It is necessary to overcome the limitations in the domains of seeds and techniques of farming, harvesting, transportation, maintenance and processing aimed at boosting productivity, quality and reducing product cost.

- To adopt measures to promote husbandry, including: reducing production cost and raising the quality of animal feed, improving the veterinary service, raising the quality of breeds, improving the breeding conditions, developing the market...

2. On forestry:

- To execute the project of planting 5 million hectares of forest. To carry out well the basic survey, allocation of land and forests, scientific research, preparations for investment, seeds and capital, training of staff, strengthening of the managerial apparatus.

-To continue stepping up measures of protecting the existing natural forests; to give priority to allocating fund for the implementation of the contracts already signed with the people; where conditions permit, to adopt policies to make the people benefit directly from the forests instead of paying them from the State budget.

- To give priority to developing enclosed nursing forests, regeneration of protection forests and special-purpose forests; to concentrate on planting new protection forests in the priority areas, to avoid scattered or evenly distributed planting.

- To adopt measures of practical support for the enterprises of all economic sectors and the farmers in developing the planting of production forests.

3. On salt production:

To invest in upgrading and reorganizing the production of salt, to raise productivity of the existing salt fields, to build new salt fields, to develop salt processing to meet the demand in quality of the industries in the country and for export, to raise the income and improve the living standard of the salt makers.

4. To develop the industry of processing agricultural and forestrial products:

- To adopt the plan to develop the industries for the preservation and processing of agricultural and forestry products linked with the building of raw material areas. First of all, there must be enough raw materials for the sugar mills and the other existing processing factories. To renovate processing technology and equipment. To take measures to provide practical assistance so as to encourage the participation of all economic sectors in the development of the industry of processing agricultural and forestrial products.

- In the year 2000 there must be a vigorous improvement in the preservation of agricultural and forestrial products, especially fresh products (vegetables, fruits, meat...) in order to raise their commercial value, raise consumption capacity in the country and export.

5. On water conservancy:

- On dykes: To ensure the safety of the dyke system in the Red River delta (particularly the Hanoi dyke) and the dykes in the northern part of the former 4th Interzone, to ensure the safety of the major reservoirs during the rain and storm season..., to carry out well the program of upgrading and strengthening the sea dykes in the Red River delta and the Mekong River delta.

- On irrigation: To give priority to the implementation of the projects of restoring and upgrading the irrigation works; to strengthen and modernize the management and exploitation of the irrigation works. To continue carrying out the program of solidifying the irrigation canals and ditches.

- To concentrate investment on speeding up the building of the projects to be completed within the year, the flood damming projects and half-finished projects in order to ensure safety during the flood season.

- On new constructions, to build irrigation projects to water coffee, tea, sugar cane, vegetables and fruit trees and the multi-purpose irrigation projects in the midlands and highlands in the North, the Center and the Central Highlands, really associating the development of irrigation with the supply of water for daily life to build raw material areas for processing and export industries, to eradicate hunger and alleviate poverty, to achieve the targets of national security and defense, to combine irrigation measures with forestry measures in order to raise the efficiency of the projects.

6. On rural development:

- To continue helping the peasants to transform above-average and average agricultural cooperatives, deal with weak and inefficient cooperatives, build new cooperatives and develop diversified forms of cooperative economy; renovate the State-owned agricultural and forestry farms. To step up the equitization of State enterprises, to rearrange them and make rational investments in order to help them carry out effective production and business; to apply the forms of leasing or contracting, selling, dissolving or bankrupting those enterprises which operate at a loss over a long period.

- To use rationally the assistance of the State to all economic sectors, including non-State economy, especially investment credit with a view to obtaining the highest socio-economic results.

- To execute the Program of eradication of hunger and alleviation of poverty (sedentarisation of cultivation and domicile, building of new economic zones and stabilization of the migrant population...), the national program on clean water and environ-mental hygiene in the rural areas, the program of assistance for 1,715 poor communes still meeting with many difficulties.

7. To develop science and technology:

In the period to come, one of the important tasks of science and technology is to help step up the process of industrialization and modernization of the agriculture and rural areas in the spirit of Resolution No. 06 of November 10, 1998 of the Political Bureau of the VIIIth Party Congress on "A number of questions in the agricultural and rural development" with focus being laid on the application of the achievements of modern bio-technology; to study and apply the new strains in order to achieve a breakthrough in productivity and quality of agricultural products; to develop the processing and preservation technology..., creating conditions to step up the research on and production of various kinds of machines, equipment and tools in service of agricultural production and farm product processing. In the year 2000, efforts should be concentrated on the following tasks:

- To elaborate and organize the execution of the projects on strains of crops, animals and forest trees including: investing in building the material and technical bases, selecting, creating and popularizing new strains. To give priority to the development of the strains of plants and animals that can be best developed in each locality or that can yield products for export.

- To select and increase investment in raising the capacity of a number of main establishments in service of research and scientific-technological transfer.

8. To develop human resources:

Along with increasing the capacity of the training establishments, to pay more attention to training State managerial cadres of the branch, cooperative cadres, technical staff and workers... In the mountain areas and the Central Highlands, attention should be paid to training cadres on the spot and cadres of ethnic minorities.

9. To increase State managerial capacity of the branch:

To appoint enough cadres, strengthen the working means of the agricultural and rural development services and sections; to strengthen the system of agricultural and forestry promotion agencies, rangers, veterinary agencies and plant protection agencies, management of irrigation works, clean water and environmental hygiene in the countryside; to build a system of quality inspection for agricultural and forestrial products, strains of plants and animals, forest trees and agricultural materials in order to enable them to settle arising problems. To step up the assignment of powers in the management of enterprises and the systems of material and technical bases of the branch, to socialize the different public utility services.

10. To further improve by one step the major policies directly related to the branch, first of all on land, labor, capital and market. To take measures to develop the market for farm produce in the country; to create favorable conditions for the enterprises to strongly expand the exportation of farm and forest products, and to import enough and in time fertilizers, plant protection pesticides, veterinary medicaments, raw materials for the production of animal feeds and other kinds of agricultural raw materials.

11. Major demands in budget expenditure drafting and the use of the State preferential investment credits in the year 2000.

- For the investments in capital construction including State budget capital and investment credit, it is necessary to revise and rationally apportion them with a view to obtaining the highest socio-economic results, meeting closely the development targets and tasks of the branch. While continuing to give high priority to investment in irrigation development, adequate allocations should be made for the implementation of the program on strains of plants and animals, investments in strengthening the system of research and transfer of science and technology, training of cadres, strengthening the managerial system of the branch, and concentrate investment on finishing definitively the different parts of projects for early commissioning, and care must be taken to avoid scattered and prolonged investment.

- The localities should rationally use the tax on agricultural land use for the targets of agricultural and rural development according to the structure and priority order and the concrete conditions and orientations of the branch.

- Expenditures estimates for non-business work must be elaborated on the necessary, rational and thrifty levels, to eliminate State subsidies by the State budget for the enterprises, stop the provision of aid from the State budget for the non business activities in science, medical care and training of the corporations (except for special cases as decided by the Prime Minister).

12. Tempo of plan elaboration:

In September, 1999 the Ministry shall hold working sessions with the Agriculture and Rural Development Services, the corporations and attached units in order to coordinate their work in planning and projecting the allocation of the State budget of the branch (the Ministry has issued Official Dispatch No. 2824-BNN/KH on August 6, 1999 to guide the overall planning of agriculture and rural development in the year 2000).

The Ministry urges the directors of the Agriculture and Rural Development Services and the heads of the attached units to organize the implementation of this Directive.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
LE HUY NGO